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Now, here's a special message from Pastor Skip's son Nate Heitzig.
So often, if you say something to a believer about a certain inconsistency or a certain sin in their life, they'll say, Hey, judge not lest you be judged. Who are you to judge another? Who are you to judge me? Don't judge me. That'll be the response, right?
Is that the connotation of what James is writing here? Is that what James meant? Is that what Jesus meant that we are never to be critical, that we're never to voice our opinion or acknowledge sin? No. As a matter of fact, did you know that exposing and rebuking sin is commanded in Scripture?
Matthew 18, 15 says, if your brother sins, Go and show him his fault in private. That's important there. If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private.
So clearly, we are to exercise judgment as believers. Paul tells believers in Romans 16: Now I urge you, brothers, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching by which you have learned and turn away from them. If we're to keep our eyes on those who cause dissensions and hindrances, that requires a certain level of evaluation and discernment, correct? Judgment. if we're to be aware of it.
Galatians 1:8 says, Mark those that cause divisions among you and avoid them.
So clearly, we are to be discerning, careful, and making certain judgments about what is taught. And this is especially true in these days in which false teachings abound. 2 Peter 2:1 says, But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction. To themselves.
So, as Christians, we are to have a level of judgment. But again, That judgment, as we said before, is a judgment for evaluation. Notice all the connotation that it's talking about there is talking about within the church. Keep an eye for those who cause dissensions. Keep an eye for those who cause division.
Keep an eye out for false doctrine and false teaching. By the way, false doctrine and false teaching is speaking specifically of the essentials of the scripture.
Someone isn't a false teacher if they have different political views than you. They're a false teacher if they're spreading heresy and doctrinal fallacies. Keep an eye out for them. Be aware of them. We're told to have judgment and discernment.
James' words here in our text. Don't forbid exposing sin with a righteous intent. They forbid lying with malicious intent. The Greek word for speak against in verse 11 appears only here and in 1 Peter, and it refers to mindless, thoughtless, careless, critical, derogatory, untrue speech directed against other people. Speech that is meant to tear them down, speech that is meant to dehumanize them, speech that is meant to shut them up.
Is what it's speaking of. It's very in line with James chapter 3, which we've already talked about, and the tongue and how destructive the tongue can be. James is continuing to build this idea that we need to be careful what we say with our words to other people and about other people. But I want to bring up, just as James 3 did, the main issue in James 2. Speaking rightly of others begins with thinking rightly of others.
Remember, that's what James has been talking about. Faith without works is dead. This idea of doing the right things begins with having the right heart, faith and works together. Saying the right things, according to James 3, has to do with the heart that is like a little rudder, the tongue, that steers the heart which way it's going to go. Speaking rightly begins with thinking rightly.
So we need to start by thinking about and considering others with grace and love the same way that Jesus considers us. Think of it this way: if the fellow believers in this room are viewed as those chosen by God before the foundation of the world, who are loved and honored by God, with whom you're going to spend all of eternity with, then you will seek to honor, love, and love. and protect them. And by the way, when I say the people in this church, I don't just mean this church. Because, man, maybe some of us, it's like, I like most people in this church.
There's some people that I can't get along with. Is what you might be thinking. But I'm talking about the church globally. I'm talking about all the churches around the country and in America, as long as they aren't preaching false doctrine or spreading heresies. If our only issues with them are related to non-essentials, we need to strive to speak well of other Christians around the world.
There is nothing more destructive than Christians tearing down other Christians because of perceived things that they don't like about that person or how they might do things differently, unless the things that they're doing and saying are directly confrontational with the doctrine and the essentials of scripture. Otherwise, our job as Christians is to honor and to protect and to love them, especially if we've never met them. Especially if your issues with another Christian somewhere else in the world is something that you've never had an opportunity to sit down and ask them about. If it's just your assumptions, if it's just your opinion, and it doesn't have to do with doctrine or essentials. Keep your mouth shut.
Basically, if God accepts them, then so should you.
Now, if you look at their life and they claim to be a Christian, you say, I don't think God accepts you. I think that what you say you are, you're not actually that, you're not a Christian. Then the right thing to do is confront them, especially one-on-one, and address them. The first step to avoiding the sin of slander and judgment isn't keeping your lips sealed, but keeping your thoughts about others in the right place. We referenced Matthew 7:1 earlier, but I want you to look at verse 3.
So Jesus talks about this idea: you who judge others. judging yourself but then he says in verse three why do you look At the spec. in your brother's eye. It goes on to say, hypocrite, remove the plank from your own first so that you can better see to help your brother remove the speck from theirs. As I read this passage, though, I realized that so many of us have misread this verse.
A lot of people think it's only wrong to point out, to ridicule, or to try and remove the speck from another's eye. As a matter of fact, I've heard a lot of people say that verse improperly. They'll say, do not remove the speck from another's eye until you remove the plank from your own. But it doesn't say that. It doesn't say do not Point out the speck in your brother's eye until you've pointed out your own.
It doesn't say that. It says do not look. At the speck in your brother's eye. Don't even look at it. How often are we guilty of looking at others in judgment and contempt?
We might never say anything to them. We might never tell them, hey, you're going to hell. We might never ridicule them, but in our hearts we're sowing judgment and hate rather than grace and love. That's why James has been talking for chapters and chapters that our job as Christians is to train our hearts. That if we train our hearts, our actions will follow faith and works.
If we train our hearts, our words will follow the tongue. If we train our hearts, how we view other people for condemnation or evaluation in judgment, love, all these things is determined by the heart. Are you going to look at people and love them, or are you going to look at people and judge them? Compare that verse when it says if you look at a speck in another's eye with another when Jesus met the rich young ruler. It says that he met the rich young ruler, he looked at him.
And he loved him. Let us be the people. that are known for looking at someone and seeing through their false pretences, seeing through their defences, and loving them. rather than judging them. Jesus loved those the religious elite hated.
Jesus touched those the religious leaders shunned. Jesus went to those the religious system rejected, and judgment begins at our core before it ever walks outside the door.
So, spend a little less time focusing on where people are at and a little more time focusing on where they've been. I think we as Christians need to learn to look at people and love them. I'm going to leave the ultimate judgment up to God. That's his job, anyways. Because there's coming a day when we will be judged, when our hearts and our motives, including the love we've shown others both inwardly and outwardly, will be judged.
And doctrine always dictates deeds. And what we and how we think about each other will determine how we speak about and to one another. James is addressing people who profess to be followers of Christ just like you and me. Let me tell you something. Jesus died for us because he loved us even when we hated him.
Not a single person in this room was deserving of the love that Jesus gave us, but we received it by grace. And because of that love, we must now love one another regardless of whether we deserve it or not. We love each other in grace. We love each other in grace. Christian, we're supposed to love.
You and I are supposed to love each other in grace, but we don't respond with grace anymore, do we? We live in a culture that responds, again, with outrage. And I've seen this rise more and more in the last 15 years or so. And I really view it, it's risen with the divisiveness that we've seen politically. But it used to be there was a day and age in our country.
Where we could put aside the different thoughts or views that we had that didn't relate to what the Bible says, and love each other in church. There used to be a day when Republicans and Democrats were in the same churches. They were watching the same news programs. They were going to the same schools. They were listening to the same songs and CDs that came out.
And they just had differing views about how the country should be won or run. There wasn't a huge amount of social pressure that was put on it. That's not the case anymore. And by and large, that's the fault of the politicians for polarizing it. But we've gotten sucked into it.
You're listening to Connect with Skip Heidzig. We'll return to Nate Heitzig's teaching in just a moment. Do you ever feel stuck when it comes to studying the Bible? Pastor Skiff's book, How to Study the Bible and Enjoy It, shows you how to go from feeling intimidated by scripture to to engaging it with joy and confidence. This helpful book is yours when you give $50 or more to help keep this Bible teaching ministry going strong around the world.
Request your copy of How to Study the Bible and Enjoy It Today. At connectwithskip.com/slash offer or call 800-922-888. Let's return now to the teaching of Nate Heidzig.
Now when we're in the conversation with somebody, If we don't like what they're saying, we try to dehumanize them by giving them terms that basically tell them, I don't care what you have to say, I've labeled you as something. And it started in 2019 and 2020. It started with the left using terms like racist and homophobic and calling you that. If they didn't like what you were saying, it was the immediate shutdown.
Well, you're just racist.
Well, no, I'm not. No one's ever told me I'm racist before.
Well, you are because you're not saying what I want you to say.
So you're racist. You're homophobic. And it was meant to dehumanize somebody and shut down the conversation and let them know I don't want to hear what you have to say anymore. But do you realize Christian Republicans now have the same kind of a coin word? If we're talking to somebody and there's something we don't like that they're saying, or there's something that we disagree with the point that they're taking, we just say, well, well, you're just woke.
You're just woke. You're just soft. It has the same connotation. It's meant to dehumanize and label them as something and basically say, whatever you're about to say, I don't want to hear it because you're woke. Hey, did you hear this person's woke?
Oh, really?
Well, I didn't know that. And it becomes the same goal and the same term. Why? Because we don't respond with grace anymore. We don't respond with grace.
We respond with outrage. We respond with frustration. If we love Jesus, we will love our brothers and sisters. Jesus said, The world will know you are my disciples by your love for one another. Church, the way we build our gathering is by love.
Your identity as a believer is not found in your love for God, but rather your love for people. The future of the church hangs on our willingness to love, and that love reflects Jesus.
So let's start building an atmosphere where the world looks on and wants to run to God, not from God. We're also supposed to consider the Bible and God. Look at the second half of verse 11 and verse 12. It says. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law.
But if you judge the law Are you not a doer of the law, but a judge? There is one lawgiver who is able to save. And to destroy.
So not only, Does our speech and thoughts reveal what we truly think about each other? It also reveals what we think about God and His law. James continues his thoughts in this verse, and again, it carries along the lines of what Jesus said when he was asked what the greatest commandment was. We mentioned it earlier, right? Love God.
and love people second. The law that Jesus is talking about, the law is love. Love God and love your neighbor. Remember what Jesus said: I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law? The fulfillment of that law was this law of love.
As a matter of fact, James calls this simple summation of the gospel, this law of love. In James chapter 2, verse 8, you can mark it down to look at later. He calls it the royal law. And Paul says in Romans chapter 13, verse 8, that the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
So, to slander or judge another person is to fail to keep the law of God, which is ironic, isn't it? Because oftentimes, those who are doing the judging are those who think. they obey the law those who think they're really righteous But in judging others. they are actually guilty of breaking the law themselves. It is a violation of God's law, and it is by God's law that the wicked will be judged.
That's why Jesus said in Matthew 7:1, which we read earlier, you will be treated as you treat others. The standard by which you judge is the standard by which you will be judged. James is saying, be careful if you're the one judging others because it might prove that your faith is void of the saving power of Jesus Christ. To judge others is to judge God's law. It's an act of defiance against the law of God.
You can't claim to keep the law and yet fail in this part. James 2.10 tells us, for whoever keeps the whole law, but fails in one point has become guilty of of all of it. And now, according to James 4, if you judge the law, not only are you judging the law of the Bible, but you're judging the lawgiver, which is God. It's like telling God, hey, God, I don't like your law of love, so I'm going to reinterpret it for myself. I'm going to choose who I will and who I won't love.
I'm going to choose who I treat well and who I treat poorly. You don't know what's best, I do.
So, we need to consider God in the Bible. And then, third and finally, this is where we'll close: we need to consider ourselves. Consider yourself. Look at the last part of verse 12. James ends with a challenge for us, and it's a challenge to self-evaluate our own lives.
He says, Who are you? To judge another. Who are you to judge another? I love this. He's basically just saying: who do you think you are?
To judge somebody else. Stop judging others. As a matter of fact, if you want to start judging people, start with yourself. Start with yourself. And I think this is the perfectly appropriate place to go to when we're starting with judgment.
And this is what James chapter 2, James chapter 3, and here in James chapter 4 is talking about. It's self-evaluation. Because by the way, it's just as destructive to judge yourself with condemnation as it is to judge others. That cycle that Satan plays in our mind, those lies of condemnation: you're not good enough, you're not strong enough, you're not holy enough, no one's going to accept you, no one's going to love you. That condemnation judgment that we play in our head is just as destructive for ourselves as it is for others.
But we are supposed to judge with evaluation in our own lives. Lord, search me and know me. Is there any wicked part inside me? Search my works, that my works and my faith match up. Search my words, that my words and my faith match up.
Search the way that I talk to other Christians. And make sure that I'm not speaking in a judgmental manner, but in a loving manner. Start the judgment with yourself. If we go back to Matthew 7, Jesus issues the same challenge in verse 5: hypocrite, first remove the plane from your own eye, start with yourself. First, we must confess our own sin, perhaps the sin of self-righteousness or condemnation.
And then, once our sin is cleansed, once that log or that plank is removed from our own eye, then and only then can we see clearly our brother or sister's sin with the desire to restore them. not destroy them. Don't condemn unless you want to be condemned. Sadly, there are those today who thrive on condemnation. Their attitude is the opposite of what a true believer should manifest, in that love believes the best of every person.
I just want to let you know: if that's you, if you're here today and you struggle with condemning others, you struggle at looking at people and judging them rather than loving them. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand. I know I do that a lot, but this is kind of embarrassing. This is between you and the Lord. But if you struggle in this area, If you struggle with condemnation, you struggle with judgment, you struggle with loving people.
I want to challenge you to do something. Start considering and comparing them. Consider them through the eyes of Jesus. As Jesus hung dying, his concern wasn't for himself. Again, it was for the murderers who hung him on that cross.
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Let me ask you, how can we expect people who are lost to know not know the way to go? He said, Forgive them, for they know not what they do. How can we expect those in darkness to see the light? How can we expect a wicked world to not act wicked?
We should see it and it should be par for the course. We should expect it. As a matter of fact. You wouldn't get mad at a blind person for bumping into you, would you? You're like, well, actually, I think I would.
That's a problem. No, we wouldn't get mad at a blind person for bumping into us.
So why do we get mad at a blind world when they can't see the light? Consider them as Jesus would with patience, kindness, and grace. And then, secondly, consider yourself. Think about all the sins that you've committed. Not just outwardly, but the sins you've committed inwardly, the sins that you don't want the person next to you to know about, the things that you don't want your kids or your wife or your husband or your connect group or your friends to know about.
Think about all the things you've done inwardly and outwardly. And as you compare them to yourself, you'll see that your list quickly outweighs theirs, no matter how bad you think they are. As a matter of fact, if I were to offer you one dollar For every sin that you could point out of one other person, hey, I'll give you $1. If you name every sin of one person, you can pick one person in the whole world, and I'll give you a dollar for every sin you can list of. There's both.
outwardly and inwardly. Who would you choose? Yourself, that's right, right? Because only you know all the thoughts you have, only you know the things that no one else does, only you know all the sins of the heart. And as you compare your spiritual bank account to the whole world, you begin to realize, like Paul, that you are the chief of sinners.
And as you realize that you're worse than everyone, it becomes much easier to love anyone. I believe the message of the Bible teaches is that Jesus loves people, all people, lost people, broken people, hurting people. And he wants to build his church as a place where sinners are found and accepted, not rejected. And while we might not agree with everyone, we're still called to love everyone.
So I think it's time that we rise up and shine love in the face of hate, acceptance in the face of rejection, grace in the face of judgment, and salvation in the face of suffering. Instead of being condemning, self-righteous people, may God help us to become compassionate and accepting, yet discerning people. And when we see others overtaken by sin, that we see it not as ammo to condemn them with, but rather information to restore them with. And finally, I want to close by saying that if you're here today and you've been judged by a Christian. Maybe you came to church, maybe this is your first time.
And you're skeptical about this whole thing. Maybe you're like that guy in Koi's story that you thought by coming here, you'd be judged, people would see through you, you wouldn't be accepted, you'd be asked to leave. If you're here today, And you've been judged by a Christian unfairly. You've been mistreated by the church. You've had your story written for you before anyone takes the time to listen to you.
If that's you, I want to apologize to you. Because what you've seen in the church is not a reflection of Jesus Christ. Jesus loves you desperately and so do we. But I'll also say this, even if you've been mistreated, that doesn't give you an excuse for unbelief. When you stand before God one day on the final judgment day when God will judge righteously.
It's not an acceptable excuse to say, well, they were mean to me. It's not going to work. Encountering an unloving believer doesn't excuse an unbelieving behavior. The Bible says that each person must give their own account to Christ. Let me tell you something.
It doesn't matter what you've done, it doesn't matter how bad you think you are, it doesn't matter how messed up you say, Nate, you don't know the things that I've seen, you don't know the places that I've been, you don't know the lifestyle that I've lived. I don't, but it doesn't matter how bad you think you are, the blood of Jesus Christ is enough to cover all of it. But it also doesn't matter What's been done to you? Jesus wants to take all the pain, all the baggage, all the sin. all the anger, all the sadness, and he wants you to come to him.
When Jesus hung on that cross, he wasn't dying for you. He was dying as you. And all that sin, all that baggage, all that pain, it died there with him. He wants to take all of that. He wants to take it to the cross and he wants to let it be crucified with him.
So if you came here today and you look around and you don't feel like you belong. I want you to know there is always room at the foot of the cross for a person willing to ask for help. There's always room at the foot of the cross for a person willing to admit they don't have it all together and they can't do it on their own. All you need to do to be forgiven of your sins and go to heaven. Just ask.
It's that simple. If you want to be forgiven, just ask the Lord, Lord. Forgive me. If you want to be accepted, just ask the Lord, Lord, accept me into your kingdom. Lord, I accept you.
Will you please accept me? Romans 10, 13 says, everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. How do you do that?
Well, just before that, it says, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Do you want to belong? You want to be accepted. Guess what? You're just in a room full of a bunch of other sinners right now.
The ground is level at the foot of the cross. No one in here is better than you. No thing you've done can keep you from heaven. The only thing that can keep you from heaven is an unwillingness. To just ask Jesus, accept him.
Receive him into your life. We're so glad you joined us for Connect with Skip Heitzig, today featuring Pastor Skip's son Nate Heitzig. Before we go, don't miss this chance to request How to Study the Bible and Enjoy It, Pastor Skip's practical guide to getting more out of every page of Scripture. It's our thanks for your generous gift of $50 or more to help share God's Word through Connect with Skip. Call 800-922-1888.
or visit connectwithgift.com slash offer. And don't forget to grab your free download of how to approach studying the Bible when you sign up for Skip's weekly devotionals. Tune in next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzigs. Make a connection! Make a connection at the foot of the crossing.
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